I'm putting this both here and on our "News, Views, and Gossip Forum." I need a historian to help me with a book project. The tentative title of the book is A History of the World From a Gambler's Perspective, and I'll give equal status to the historian who becomes the co-author.

To qualify, the historian must have a legitimate degree in history and, of course, an advanced degree is even better (but not required).

For those who don't know, I have already written some of this material in my book Gambling Theory and Other Topics, and want to pick up from there. That means rewriting some of this material and adding much new material (and I already have a number of ideas for the new material).

Obviously, the book is over titled but the idea is to find people and events where someone took a clear gamble that follows precepts which those of us who understand poker/gambling well will immediatelyrecognize.

A couple of chapters include how Robert E. Lee used poker tactics to defeat George McClellan and The Army of the Potomac during the Seven Days battles early in the Civil War. Another topic would be how Sir Francis Drake used sound gambling principles to defeat the Spanish Amada, with another topic being how General “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoynne, due to a complete misunderstanding of gambling tendencies in most people, lost a large portion of his army early in his campaign that contributed to his defeat at "The Battle of Saratoga." And there's lots more.

Additional topics can include the best NFL bet ever – Super Bowl IV (not III); David versus Goliath and how poor Goliath never had a chance, the luckiest man who ever lived: Hernan Cortez, better to be lucky than good: Braxton Bragg at the Battle of Chickamauga, and so much more. And I’m sure there are a whole lot of other events that would qualify.

If interested, either post here or send me a PM. And it will be a few months before I can get to work on this.

I'm not a historian and can't help, but you might look into doing a chapter on Yamamoto. He was supposed to be a successful gambler at a lot of games including poker and no doubt applied that type of thinking to his war plans. His strategy and approach to the Pearl Harbor attack and beginning of the war with the US could be an interesting subject. He had made it clear to his leadership that he thought that to have any chance of winning they would have to score an early knockout, and he came up with a high risk plan that gave them the best chance of doing that with the resources they had available.

I'm not a historian and can't help, but you might look into doing a chapter on Yamamoto. He was supposed to be a successful gambler at a lot of games including poker and no doubt applied that type of thinking to his war plans. His strategy and approach to the Pearl Harbor attack and beginning of the war with the US could be an interesting subject. He had made it clear to his leadership that he thought that to have any chance of winning they would have to score an early knockout, and he came up with a high risk plan that gave them the best chance of doing that with the resources they had available.

Hi camp:

Years ago we did a book titled PokerFarce and PokerTruth by Ray Michael B. that had a chapter on Yamamoto. And yes, he was a poker player.

Alcibiades is a very interesting character if rather unknown from long ago. He was good at playing people/groups/nations off each other and was a significant general in the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BCE; he switched sides in that conflict, twice I think. An intelligent person and natural gambler his doings were very convoluted so probably not conducive to the book you are contemplating.

Alcibiades is a very interesting character if rather unknown from long ago. He was good at playing people/groups/nations off each other and was a significant general in the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BCE; he switched sides in that conflict, twice I think. An intelligent person and natural gambler his doings were very convoluted so probably not conducive to the book you are contemplating.

Hi Zeno:

Actually, this sounds like someone who should be looked at. Usually the question with someone like this was did he set up his strategy so that there were multiple outcomes, thus producing a large standard deviation relative to the expectation? When that happens, gambling is involved.

one that comes to mind is that canada's reichman family (orthodox jews from hungary by way of north africa) made a huge bet on NYC real estate in mid-70's when city was going bankrupt. they were considered crazy but they were right........... and then they got killed on building canary wharf in london in early 90s (late 80s), although that was more complex than buying NYC real estate.

completely unrelated... but i always thought game show analytics and math would be great fun subject for 2p2

idea of "free rolls" is interesting too. or imbedded options....... in real world situations